Reducing Costs by Extending Product Life

As a manufacturer of medical grade power supplies, we see many changes in the coming year. The U.S. healthcare industry is going through a transformation that will have a different landscape. The medical device manufacturers that are leading the transformation are designing products that will have a longer lifetime. The lifetime of electronic components is determined by the circuit and system design. Power supplies have a large impact on the end system designs and thermal performance. The secret to long life power supplies is to have highly efficient supplies and low component temperatures. One can evaluate the power supply design by asking for reports with a thermal component analysis and a DFMEA (design failure mode and effects analysis). As the efficiency is increased in the power supply, the heat in the entire system is reduced and that equates a higher life for the end system. The old way of looking at reducing costs was to use cheaper components with shorter lifetimes. The new way is to increase the life of the product, thereby lowering overall costs. We see the industry looking to reduce system costs by extending the life of the medical devices.